Gor Mahia won the 2025/26 Football Kenya Federation Premier League title without kicking a ball after APS Bomet defeated AFC Leopards 2-1 in Kericho on Sunday in their Round 33 fixture.
AFC Leopards, second with 64 points and with one match left to play, can no longer finish above Gor Mahia, who have 68 points and two matches remaining.
Gor Mahia’s returned to the summit of Kenyan football with a record-extending 22nd league title which has the past mingling with the present to reminisce that journey.
Between July and September last year, then Gor Mahia deputy patron Eliud Owalo was perhaps the most-talked about person in Kenyan football. His 13th-floor office at Harambee House – where he carried out his duties as the Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Performance and Delivery Management in the Executive Office of the President before resigning in January 2026 after announcing his 2027 presidential bid – fuelled a stream of transfer news and gossip.
After an underwhelming 2024-25 season during which Gor Mahia bottled the title race to hand Kenya Police their maiden league trophy and lost 2-1 to big-time newcomers Nairobi United in the FKF Cup final, Gor Mahia was left desperate for a quick return to glory.
Then ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo (left) hands over a wad of cash to Gor Mahia captain Philemon Otieno during a breakfast meeting at a Nairobi hotel on April 25, 2023.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
Owalo seemed the most eager to ensure the club attained its goals. Following meetings held at his office, five members of Harambee Stars’ 2024 Chan squad joined the record Kenyan champions.
Goalkeeper Byrne Omondi, striker Felix Oluoch, and defenders Lewis Bandi, Michael Kibwage, and Siraj Mohammed strengthened a team intent on moving forward without, among other exits, key players like Alphonce Omija, Benson Omalla, Boniface Omondi, and Sammy Onyango.
“Gor Mahia is the biggest club in Kenya and it must recruit and produce the best Kenyan players. A player should only leave Gor Mahia for a foreign club,” Owalo told Nation Sport in a November 2025 interview.
Reflecting on Gor Mahia’s title win, Kibwage spoke of the “newness” that brought back the Gor Mahia of old.
“The current office is fairly new. The club made several new signings. The coach and the technical bench were also new. We upgraded to a new level of professionalism where everyone played their part and here we are,” Kibwage said.
Gor Mahia’s coach, former Ghana Black Stars coach and captain Charles Akonnor, joined the club on August 1, 2025, bringing with him an all-Ghanaian technical bench comprising assistant coach Bismark Kobi-Mensah, goalkeeper coach Ben Owu, and video analyst Joshua Kofi Boafo.
Charles Akonnor (left) is unveiled as Gor Mahia's new coach by the club chairman Ambrose Rachier after he signed a two-year contract in Nairobi on July 01, 2025.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Gor Mahia
Their entry was followed by that of two Ghanaian players, Ebenezer Adukwaw and George Amonno – acquisitions that prompted rival fans to nickname Gor Mahia “Ghana Embassy FC”.
“I have known my technical staff for many years and we have built cohesion and trust that makes working together easy,” Akonnor told Nation Sport in December 2025 when commenting about the moniker given to his team.
Akonnor’s entry put an end to the comical coaching carousel that highlighted Gor Mahia’s 2024-25 season, during which club legend Zedekiah “Zico” Otieno had two stints as interim coach following the exits of Brazilian Leonardo Leiva and Croatian Sinisa Mihic on the back of alleged sabotage and squabbles with players.
Still, the new coach bounce at Gor Mahia was deflated by Bidco United when K’Ogalo started the season with a shock 1-0 loss to the oil manufacturers on September 21, 2025.
However, Gor Mahia moved on quickly from that loss and two months later, they sat at the top of the league standings after winning six times and drawing once in the seven matches that followed.
Then APS Bomet happened. On November 25, 2025, the league leaders lost 4-1 at home to the newly-promoted club, who, at the time, were the league’s basement club. It was Gor Mahia’s worst defeat in a league game in three years, following a 3-0 loss to Posta Rangers in 2022.
Akonnor, who had tinkered with his starting line-up, described the match as “a bad day”.
“I am responsible for that and we look to make amends in our next match,” he also said.
Yet, amends took long to make. The defeat against APS Bomet was followed by a 1-0 Mashemeji derby loss to AFC Leopards, their first in two years against their bitter rivals.
Bryton Onyona (right) of Gor Mahia tussles for the ball with Emmanuel Lwangu of AFC Leopards during the Mashemeji derby at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on December 7, 2025.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
Akonnor, born exactly 10 years after AFC Leopards was founded on March 12, 1964, blamed the result on his team lacking “aggression” and match officials favouring AFC Leopards in 50/50 decisions. Over the next five matches after that, Gor Mahia struggled for consistency as they alternated between draws and wins.
Akonnor came out of that rocky period with a new nickname that questioned his ability to lead the team to glory – “Otete”, the Luo word for the small dome-like caged enclosure that is used to protect chicks from predators.
Akonnor earned the nickname due to his perceived uncanny resemblance to politician Philip Nashon Aroko, who is also known as “Otete”.
Akonnor did not just start 2026 with a new nickname but also with a new captain, Alpha Onyango, after the talismanic Austin Odhiambo found greener pastures with Nejmeh FC in Lebanon.
On January 14, 2026 – three days after Gor Mahia had drawn 0-0 with Shabana – Akonnor and his technical bench had their oratory skills tested after Gor Mahia trailed 2-0 at halftime against Murang’a Seal.
After Churchillian speeches from Akonnor and his technical bench, Gor Mahia bounced back to win the match 3-2.
"In the dressing room, I told them to show character. I told they should do something that we have never taught them,” Akonnor said after the match.
Following that win, Gor Mahia went on to win eight times and draw once in the nine league matches that followed, opening a seven-point lead at the top of the table. Ebenezer Kofi Assifuah-Inkoom, the Ghanaian striker who joined the club in January, inspired some of those as a super substitute.
“Assifuah starts from the bench sometimes to preserve his energy,” Akonnor told Nation Sport recently.
After that purple patch, Gor Mahia slipped up again and collected two points from the next three matches against Kariobangi Sharks (0-0), Tusker (lost 1-0), and Bandari (0-0).
That run of results had Akonnor and Kobi-Mensah criticising FKF’s decision to have their match against Tusker played at Kirinyaga’s Wang’uru Stadium. They labelled the stadium’s pitch as “unsuitable” but expressed confidence in their team’s ability to bounce back.
Ambrose Rachier, the club’s chairman, called a press conference following the draw against Bandari, during which he criticised the standard of officiating in the FKF Premier League.
After that, Gor Mahia went on to pick 10 points from four matches, including a 1-0 derby victory over AFC Leopards.
Gor Mahia head coach Charles Akannor celebrates his team's win over AFC Leopards in an FKF Premier League match at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on April 26, 2026.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
That run sustained a nail-biting with AFC Leopards until Ingwe lost to APS Bomet on Sunday, handing Gor Mahia the title.
Yet for a season, the club was under pressure to perform; their players seemed to be at ease even at the lowest moments, judging from their social media activities.
The trio Byrne Omondi, Michael Kibwage, and Sylvester Owino – who are neighbours in Kahawa Wendani – frequently bonded over delicious treats at an ice cream parlour in their neighbourhood, where well-meaning Gor Mahia fans keep them on their toes with critiques of their performances.
“That and other bonding sessions that we had with our other teammates helped us stick together. We now look forward to playing continental football,” Kibwage told Nation Sport.
